1997 - Present
It's in the Bag is an INCREDIBLE pricing game that may be the best pricing game introduced in the 1990's. The game is a cash game that offers a $16,000 top prize. Six grocery items are shown--five are useful, one is an impostor. Five bags with prices are shown as well. The contestant must place the items on the bags that correspond to their correct prices. The contestant wins $1,000 for getting the first bag correct and can always take the money and run or risk it for double the money on the next bag. This process continues through the fifth bag, which is worth $16,000. A mistake anywhere along the way forfeits all the cash.
To make the game easier, the first two bags are usually outlier values (a la Phone Home game) such as 50 cents on the first bag and $14.99 on the second bag. The last two bags are usually more challenging prices. Contestants who watch the show frequently at home are at a distinct advantage because the show cycles the same 15 or 16 items through the game each season, so the items are never really a surprise.
This game seems to be exempt from the Range Game syndrome. Contestants have been known to stop at the second bag ($2,000) because they think they have a mistake looming down the road.
On the $1,000,000 Spectacular in 2007, It's in the Bag was played for $24,000. The first four bag values remained the same and the final bag tripled the stakes to $24,000.
It's in the Bag was an instant success, seeing much more frequent play than Fortune Hunter, the other cash game that premiered just a few months after this game did. It's an incredibly unique game with a lot of strategy and tension involved. It's one of the few cash games that rewards intelligent (not lucky) contestants.
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| You could win up to $16,000 in cash! This game is great, but that sign has to go. | Here's the It's In the Bag setup from 1997. |
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| Here are the six grocery items for today: vitamins, bleach, syrup, soap, yams, and gum. | Kathleen moves the gum over to the first bag. Note the disparity between the prices on the first two bags. |
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| She thinks that the gum is in the 25 cent bag... | ...and she's right! $1000 is hers! Will she risk it? |
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| She sure did, and now she's up to the last bag! She's going for broke! If that bleach is in the bag, she wins it all! | It's in the Bag! She wins $16,000! She knew that the last bag couldn't be that syrup! |